Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Japan - Hiroshima to Tokyo via Bunny Island

Today we visited Okunoshima aka Bunny Island. Oh how I've dreamed of this place and it lived up to every expectation.

Our taxi ride from our hotel in Hiroshima to the Hiroshima train station was so educational. The taxi driver taught us about how Hiroshima was lower than sea level, and they used to have floods but now know how to protect against flooding from typhoons. He did this by showing us a picture presentation on the centre console of his Taxi, all in English which he had clearly practiced, I wanted to hug him! We loved it, and he even got us there just in time for our first train to Bunny Island.

After our first train we managed to stash most of our stuff in 1 of the 3 large coin lockers at Mihara station, but were still left with one big suitcase which we brought with us. Once we reached Takehara station, we did a quick stop at the family mart and bought the last cabbage then made our way to the port to take the ferry over.

I was prepared for the bunnies.

As soon as we arrived we began to spot bunnies waiting at the shore. They were begging for food as soon as we go there! There were so many of them, all beautiful and all very different from one and other. They were extremely tame and let you touch them but not pick them up (I only tried briefly once and when the bunny got spooked I didn't try again).

We stopped lots of times to feed bunnies on the way to the hotel where I tried to ask if I could store my luggage. The lady politely declined and suggested I use the coin lockers and pointed outside to a blue building in a park. Turns out the blue building was a huge demountable with like 3 coin lockers in the back corner, all taken. What's with the lack of coin lockers? Anyway we just dropped the luggage in this room decided that no one would bother to steal my worn clothes.

We fed so many bunnies, but gave extra food to the ones who ran from a long way to come see us.

We did a loop around the whole island stopping to feed bunnies and appreciate views as well as the creepiness.

The juxtaposition of all of the chemical weapon related buildings compared to the cuteness of the bunnies was really interesting. The bunnies didn't seem to know that they were frolicking in creepy buildings wrought with horrible history.

Bunny Island was truly magical. We really enjoyed it for the bunnies, the history, the walking tracks, and the natural beauty. I think that an island fully of something cute works best when the cute thing is also really silly, very trusting, and a vegetarian so they don't smell and do convenient little hard ball poos that aren't even gross.

We're now on our third train (a Shinkansen) of the multi-train journey back to Tokyo. Our bento dinner was delicious!

About Me

Well, just a little about myself.
I was born in Perth and have lived here my whole life, and I count myself as an Aussie even though my family are all extremely Romanian.
I went to Mercedes College - the one with the winter green uniform and the poo brown shoes.
I'm putting my Bachelor of Engineering/Computer & Mathematical Science at UWA to use at a mining equipment simulation company, and working as a fitness trainer in my spare time.
I have a pet bunny named George. He's a white dwarf lop and we love each other very much.
I have a weakness for anything peach flavoured, especially peaches, and I never say no to fairy bread.